Schokolade bitte

 

Today marked the start of the third week of lessons. I’m starting to get into the routine a bit more, although this morning was a bit of nightmare. I did not want to wake up! I guess I’m still recovering from Saturday night.

Today I really really wanted some chocolate.So I went down to REWE and bought myself this beast! 300g of Alpenmilch goodness for less than €1.50. I do think I deserve it after studying nonstop from 13.30-18.30. 

Happy Halloween!!!

 

So today is October 31st, aka Halloween. I’ve never made a big deal of Halloween. I hate trick or treaters and I’ve always ended up either working or having a serious deadline to meet, resulting in me never having attended a Halloween bash.  

I was really excited about going to my first ever Halloween party, which took place last night in the university student bar. It was also my friend’s first party as well, so we were both set on doing it right. As I previously posted, we went to Frankfurt on the Friday to pick up some items to make a Halloween costume. She dressed up a evil vampire/witch wearing a purple wig, a sexy black dress and some very red lipstick. I was a cat.

The party was amazing. Normally the parties at the student bar, Schwarz Weiss, are very samey. Mediocre music, cheap drinks, the same bunch of people. But last night I really felt like I was in a proper club. They had gone all out on decorating the place. The ground floor was completely covered in real leaves and twigs, plus there was a cemetery. The atmosphere in the party room was immense, everyone had a great time. Some costumes were terrifying, and lots of people (particularly the zombies) stayed in character the whole night.

I really did have an amazing time, it’s disappointing that it only comes along once a year. I hope that there will be more parties like this at Schwarz Weiss in the future.

(p.s. in other news the clocks went back an hour last night. I hope everyone enjoyed their extra hour in bed. I was still partying haha)

An unusual series of events involving cat ears

 

I went to Frankfurt today with one of my Taiwanese friends to buy a costume for the Halloween party tomorrow. Like most girls my age I didn’t want to go totally scary, so I settled for something a bit more cute/sexy: a black cat.

So I bought myself some cat ears from Claire’s Accessories and then went off to some other shops to find some black clothes. In the meanwhile I managed to lose my friend. I searched for her for about 10mins in Zara but she was nowhere to be found. I rang her, no answer. So I decided to carry on shopping. A few stores down I found a black skirt and went to try it on in the changing rooms. It looked good, tried on the cat ears with it, still looked good, took of the skirt, got changed and went to pay for the skirt.

Have you noticed yet?

So i pay for the skirt, I leave the shop, try to phone my friend, still no answer. I walk down the busy shopping street and get stopped by two girls around the ages of 18-20. “Where did you buy those?” they say. “Huh? Sorry?” I answer. Then one of the girls pulls something off of my head. I assume its my hairband that I was wearing that day…it was the cat ears with the label still on!

I could have died of embarrassment there and then.

To my surprise the girls were really nice. One of them took the label off for me and asked where the shop was and how much they were. They then asked me where I was from and we exchanged mobile numbers. We talked for about 15mins and they were really keen on meeting up again. They want to improve their English and would love to help me improve my German. Its crazy but I guess you could say that cat ears are a real icebreaker in Germany.

It’s starting to look like Autumn

 

I came home to my woodland surrounded room this afternoon to be shocked by the explosion of orange, red and brown glaring at me from my window. With the severely cold weather we’ve been having in Germany lately, I was expecting Germany to just miss out Autumn and go straight into a freezing cold winter. But finally here it is, the evidence staring straight at me as I write this facing my window. Autumn/Fall/Herbst is here.

   I’m not usually such a big fan of Autumn, to be honest it’s my least favourite season, but I think this view has really won me over. I can only think of one word to use to describe it: Wunderschön!

My German haircut

 

It took a lot of bravery and self persuasion but I went and got my first haircut in Germany. I went to a little hairdressing salon called hair killers on my friend’s recommendation. The salon was a little unconventional. You needed to take a ticket and wait your turn, rather than book an appointment. I was lucky to only need to wait 10mins, my friend had to wait over an hour last week. I was really nervous about getting it done because I could of easily ended up agreeing to getting my hair shaved off with my lack of hairdressing vocabulary. Luckily my hair is nice. She didn’t cut it exactly how I asked her too, its shorter and has more layers, but it was much cheaper than a cut in the UK which sets me back £22, in Marburg it was just €13.

I really enjoyed just walking into the salon and getting my haircut then and there. I’m quite impatient so having to wait weeks to get my haircut, when my fringe is already poking me in the eyes, really gets on my nerves.

Overall a fairly successful day.   

Procrastination

 

I’m attempting to write my first ever essay in Ger,man. The title is “Was ist für mich Geschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft” (What does history and the study of history mean to me>?"). It’s not going very well at all, hence why I am blogging about it rather than writing the actual essay. The essay only needs to be one to two side of A4, but I’m really struggling to write an academic piece of writing in German. I have a new found respect for all of those international students who come to university in the UK and manage to succeed. You guys are truly inspirational. 

Orientation

Orientation seems a life time ago now, but I think it is important to blog about it for my own memory’s sake and also to inform others of the procedures.
Orientation in Marburg was a 4 day event from Wednesday 1st Sept-Saturday 4th. I arrived in Marburg on the first day of Orientation. The program started from 9am in the Milchbar (which is in the general mensa and administrative building. I arrived at 9.30 and found myself waiting in an hour long queue just to sign in and pay the 30€ participation fee. Everyone was given a 5€ breakfast voucher to use at the Bistro downstairs although many people, including myself, refused to leave the queue and thus missed out on a free breakfast.

• Tip: Bring something to eat and drink in anticipation of the lange Schlange

When I finally arrived at the sign in desk, a copy of my passport was made and I was handed a white orientation folder with my name on it. Next to my name was a group number (I was in group 1). I was guided to group 1’s table where I sat with a few others and was guided through the filling out of some forms.
I remember not really understanding what I was exactly filling out (it later turned out to be forms for a months bus pass and forms to declare residency),but all I did know was that everyone else were able to fill out the address section except me. This really worried me because as far as I was aware we were not going to find out where we were living until today, yet no one had told me where I was living but had obviously told the others. Thus I started to doubt whether or not I had actually applied for somewhere to live and what the hell I was going to do if I hadn’t. What I didn’t know at the time was that a lot of people in my group , mostly from Taiwan and Japan, were in a different program and have arrived a week before thus they had received their keys 7 days prior to orientation.

• Tip: Because of all the forms make sure you always have a pen, your passport, passport photos and plenty of cash.

I finally received my keys and then was taken in a mini bus to my accommodation.
The form filling and 5€ breakfast vouchers were everyday features of the program as was evening entertainment. The first night we were taken to a bar, the second was a party in the student run “club”  Schwarzweiss. On the Friday night one of our two group tutors took us to a sports bar to watch the football, Germany v Belgium. Saturday night was an even bigger party at Schwarzweiss to wrap everything up. Every group had to cook some food to take along and then lots of cheap alcohol was consumed. It was basically the highlight of the program.
Although the program isn’t necessary I would recommend it to people because a. it makes life a lot easier having people there to guide you through all of the painstaking processes that a new international student needs to go through, and b. it is a great way to make friends fast. The groups were very well mixed in terms of nationalities and programs of study. Without the program I most certainly wouldn’t have made the friendships that I have here in Marburg.